A street near our house.
What the local women wear.
How all the women carry their babies.
Megastore is one of the grocery stores I shop at. 
A belated picture from our Mozambique snorkeling trips.
Dustin's 9th birthday party! 
A 100 trillion dollar bill from Zimbabwe! It's worth about 20 cents!
A really cool spider we saw at the kids' school.Hello everyone,
I don’t think I have ever gone into too much detail about what it is like to go to the grocery store here, but it’s always an adventure, so worth sharing.
First off, like in the States, there is not just one store, but several. I typically need to visit 4 in a week, just to get all the things I need. One store never has everything you need. And if they had the item the previous week, it does not mean they will have it the next time you go in, even for basic things like bread and eggs.
The first thing to note about all of these grocery stores is that they are all filthy! Not exactly how you want to find the store that you are buying food in, but it’s just the way it is. I always carry hand sanitizer and use it liberally as soon as I leave the stores. It’s interesting because there are tons of workers in these stores, and their whole job is to clean the shelves and clean all the cans/products on the shelves. That’s literally all they do all day long. And yet, I never once have gotten something home that I didn’t have to first wash before putting it away. It almost seems like their goal must be to see how much dirt they can get onto one can.
When I buy cases of soda, they are wrapped in plastic, and the plastic is so dirty and sticky that I don’t even want to pick it up. I bring the case home and stick it straight into the sink, and then I have to wash every single can. Even through the plastic, the cans still get disgusting. One time I got the soda cans home and noticed that they had the old-style pull tabs on them, the kind that pulls all the way off. I haven’t seen those since I was a kid! I remember as a kid we had to be careful not to step on them, or they could cut your foot. When I saw those tabs I wondered how old those cans were! But the expiration date was okay on them, and Bill seemed to think the Coke tasted fine. Speaking of Coke, that is all we can get here—no Pepsi or Pepsi products at all. Bill likes Pepsi better, but has adapted to the Coke just fine.
The other disgusting things we find at these stores are roaches everywhere. Ewww, gross! I know! Let’s see, what else? Well, there are “No Smoking” signs up all over the stores, and yet, the manager sits right at the front of the store smoking! Go figure!
When I get to the store in the mornings, bread is being delivered. It’s not all packaged and wrapped like you would think. It’s just sitting there in crates. Then, the bread delivery dude takes the unwrapped loaves of bread out of the crates with his bare hands (no gloves), and hands them to the store employee. She takes the loaves with her bare hands, and sticks them straight onto the shelves and waits for the people to buy them. Gross! No wonder the bread is stale before I even get it home! I try to only buy bread from a different store, where the bread is already wrapped. Of course, I’m sure somebody with bare hands put it into the wrappers, but at least I didn’t have to see it! Sometimes, it’s just better not to have to see those things! Then I can at least try to pretend that the bread was handled in a sanitary way.
When I buy things like boxes of cereal (at $25/box), the boxes are all crushed and dirty. In the States, I would never buy a box like that, but here, there is no choice; it’s all that they have. When I get them home, I take the cereal out of the boxes and stick it straight into the freezer. That was a suggestion from several people to deal with the weevils, and that has taken care of the problem; we have had no further problems with weevils. I stick everything in the freezer that I can (cereal, pasta, rice, flour, bread, etc). Pretty much anything that might potentially have, or get weevils, goes into the freezer. Fortunately for us, our fridge has no freezer, so we have a separate full-sized freezer. So at least I have enough room to put all my food.
The other thing that is interesting about grocery shopping is that the employees who are cleaning the shelves will never move out of your way if you want to get something from the shelf they are cleaning. They just ignore you and you have to reach around them to get what you want. And if you are looking at things on a shelf that they want to clean, they just stand there staring at you until you move. Half the time I get intimidated into just leaving without the item I wanted. Nothing like great customer service!
Another thing I wanted to mention is all the potato chip flavors they have here. They have Lay’s potato chips, but they are really funky flavors like pickle, paprika, ketchup, chutney, mexican chili, smoked beef, spare rib, thai sweet chili, and BBQ ham. It’s rare to find something normal like sour cream and onion. When I find something that we like, I typically buy every single one they have on the shelf, because it’s likely that the next time, they won’t have it.
The one nice thing that has happened is that I now have my own personal guy who bags groceries for me. He is a store employee, but he knows me now, so when he sees me, he runs to get a cart for me. If I want a case of soda, he’ll try to find the least sticky one for me, and will even attempt to wipe it off before putting it in my cart. It doesn’t really help, but at least he is trying. If I need US money changed to Congolese francs, he will go and do that for me, so he is quite helpful.
I don’t know if you remember me writing a long time ago about what a hassle it is to check out of the grocery store. Once they ring everything up and have bagged your groceries, then you have to go wait in another line (10 feet away from the checkout counter), and another person takes everything out of your bags and checks it off on the receipt. Well, I found out that they do this to make sure the employees are not charging you for things that you didn’t buy, and then pocketing the extra money (it’s quite corrupt here). It was a huge pain, and added about 10-15 minutes onto my grocery trips. Well now that I have the same guy that bags my groceries each week, when I check out, he goes and gets a manager, and the manager watches as each item is rung up so there is no way the employee can charge me extra. Because the manager is there watching, I no longer have to go wait in the second line and have them check off everything in my cart. This has been great. So now it’s not as big a hassle to go to the store. Of course, I tip this grocery bagger well, which I’m sure is why he treats me well. He’s very nice, and we try to have conversations in French, but often end up talking about the weather, which I think is funny. It’s like we don’t have much in common, and my French is not that great, but we can always talk about the weather! He always laughs at me when he sees that I have 8 bags of Cheetos or something like that in my cart. I tried to explain to him that if I don’t buy it now, it won’t be here the next time. It’s sad though because what I spend at the grocery store in a week, is less than what he makes in a month.
Same goes for my driver. I think he makes less than $200/month. I always try to buy things at the grocery each week for my driver that he can take home to his family. I buy him things like rice, flour, sugar, salt, powdered milk, pasta, beans, etc—things that won’t go bad right away. He has 4 kids, which is not a lot for the Congolese people. Often they have 10-12 kids. He has two girls that are 8 and 10, and two boys that are 6 and 2. Because they are close in age to Jensen and Dustin (but younger), I give him all of the clothes that Jensen and Dustin outgrow.
The last thing to mention is that because there are now a lot of Americans here, you see many of the stores trying to get American products. They know that we are the ones with the money, so it makes sense for them to try to cater to our tastes. At one of the stores, every time I come in, the manager takes me around the store and shows me all the American products. It’s funny! Some of the products that they have here have American names (Kelloggs), but the cereals are not made in the US (typically made in South Africa or Belgium), so they don’t taste the same. You can tell—if the directions or labels are written in French, German, Hindi or Afrikaans, then you know it wasn’t made in the US. We got excited because we found Kelloggs Froot Loops. Well, when we opened them, they didn’t even look like Froot Loops (the loops were 3 funky colors), and they tasted horrible. I gave them all to my driver ( I had bought 3 boxes). I’ve learned to look and see where the product was actually made, and see if the directions on the box are ones I can actually read and follow.
Well, that’s about it for now. We come home now in 4.5 weeks! Hope to see you all soon!
Au revoir,
Laurie
I don’t think I have ever gone into too much detail about what it is like to go to the grocery store here, but it’s always an adventure, so worth sharing.
First off, like in the States, there is not just one store, but several. I typically need to visit 4 in a week, just to get all the things I need. One store never has everything you need. And if they had the item the previous week, it does not mean they will have it the next time you go in, even for basic things like bread and eggs.
The first thing to note about all of these grocery stores is that they are all filthy! Not exactly how you want to find the store that you are buying food in, but it’s just the way it is. I always carry hand sanitizer and use it liberally as soon as I leave the stores. It’s interesting because there are tons of workers in these stores, and their whole job is to clean the shelves and clean all the cans/products on the shelves. That’s literally all they do all day long. And yet, I never once have gotten something home that I didn’t have to first wash before putting it away. It almost seems like their goal must be to see how much dirt they can get onto one can.
When I buy cases of soda, they are wrapped in plastic, and the plastic is so dirty and sticky that I don’t even want to pick it up. I bring the case home and stick it straight into the sink, and then I have to wash every single can. Even through the plastic, the cans still get disgusting. One time I got the soda cans home and noticed that they had the old-style pull tabs on them, the kind that pulls all the way off. I haven’t seen those since I was a kid! I remember as a kid we had to be careful not to step on them, or they could cut your foot. When I saw those tabs I wondered how old those cans were! But the expiration date was okay on them, and Bill seemed to think the Coke tasted fine. Speaking of Coke, that is all we can get here—no Pepsi or Pepsi products at all. Bill likes Pepsi better, but has adapted to the Coke just fine.
The other disgusting things we find at these stores are roaches everywhere. Ewww, gross! I know! Let’s see, what else? Well, there are “No Smoking” signs up all over the stores, and yet, the manager sits right at the front of the store smoking! Go figure!
When I get to the store in the mornings, bread is being delivered. It’s not all packaged and wrapped like you would think. It’s just sitting there in crates. Then, the bread delivery dude takes the unwrapped loaves of bread out of the crates with his bare hands (no gloves), and hands them to the store employee. She takes the loaves with her bare hands, and sticks them straight onto the shelves and waits for the people to buy them. Gross! No wonder the bread is stale before I even get it home! I try to only buy bread from a different store, where the bread is already wrapped. Of course, I’m sure somebody with bare hands put it into the wrappers, but at least I didn’t have to see it! Sometimes, it’s just better not to have to see those things! Then I can at least try to pretend that the bread was handled in a sanitary way.
When I buy things like boxes of cereal (at $25/box), the boxes are all crushed and dirty. In the States, I would never buy a box like that, but here, there is no choice; it’s all that they have. When I get them home, I take the cereal out of the boxes and stick it straight into the freezer. That was a suggestion from several people to deal with the weevils, and that has taken care of the problem; we have had no further problems with weevils. I stick everything in the freezer that I can (cereal, pasta, rice, flour, bread, etc). Pretty much anything that might potentially have, or get weevils, goes into the freezer. Fortunately for us, our fridge has no freezer, so we have a separate full-sized freezer. So at least I have enough room to put all my food.
The other thing that is interesting about grocery shopping is that the employees who are cleaning the shelves will never move out of your way if you want to get something from the shelf they are cleaning. They just ignore you and you have to reach around them to get what you want. And if you are looking at things on a shelf that they want to clean, they just stand there staring at you until you move. Half the time I get intimidated into just leaving without the item I wanted. Nothing like great customer service!
Another thing I wanted to mention is all the potato chip flavors they have here. They have Lay’s potato chips, but they are really funky flavors like pickle, paprika, ketchup, chutney, mexican chili, smoked beef, spare rib, thai sweet chili, and BBQ ham. It’s rare to find something normal like sour cream and onion. When I find something that we like, I typically buy every single one they have on the shelf, because it’s likely that the next time, they won’t have it.
The one nice thing that has happened is that I now have my own personal guy who bags groceries for me. He is a store employee, but he knows me now, so when he sees me, he runs to get a cart for me. If I want a case of soda, he’ll try to find the least sticky one for me, and will even attempt to wipe it off before putting it in my cart. It doesn’t really help, but at least he is trying. If I need US money changed to Congolese francs, he will go and do that for me, so he is quite helpful.
I don’t know if you remember me writing a long time ago about what a hassle it is to check out of the grocery store. Once they ring everything up and have bagged your groceries, then you have to go wait in another line (10 feet away from the checkout counter), and another person takes everything out of your bags and checks it off on the receipt. Well, I found out that they do this to make sure the employees are not charging you for things that you didn’t buy, and then pocketing the extra money (it’s quite corrupt here). It was a huge pain, and added about 10-15 minutes onto my grocery trips. Well now that I have the same guy that bags my groceries each week, when I check out, he goes and gets a manager, and the manager watches as each item is rung up so there is no way the employee can charge me extra. Because the manager is there watching, I no longer have to go wait in the second line and have them check off everything in my cart. This has been great. So now it’s not as big a hassle to go to the store. Of course, I tip this grocery bagger well, which I’m sure is why he treats me well. He’s very nice, and we try to have conversations in French, but often end up talking about the weather, which I think is funny. It’s like we don’t have much in common, and my French is not that great, but we can always talk about the weather! He always laughs at me when he sees that I have 8 bags of Cheetos or something like that in my cart. I tried to explain to him that if I don’t buy it now, it won’t be here the next time. It’s sad though because what I spend at the grocery store in a week, is less than what he makes in a month.
Same goes for my driver. I think he makes less than $200/month. I always try to buy things at the grocery each week for my driver that he can take home to his family. I buy him things like rice, flour, sugar, salt, powdered milk, pasta, beans, etc—things that won’t go bad right away. He has 4 kids, which is not a lot for the Congolese people. Often they have 10-12 kids. He has two girls that are 8 and 10, and two boys that are 6 and 2. Because they are close in age to Jensen and Dustin (but younger), I give him all of the clothes that Jensen and Dustin outgrow.
The last thing to mention is that because there are now a lot of Americans here, you see many of the stores trying to get American products. They know that we are the ones with the money, so it makes sense for them to try to cater to our tastes. At one of the stores, every time I come in, the manager takes me around the store and shows me all the American products. It’s funny! Some of the products that they have here have American names (Kelloggs), but the cereals are not made in the US (typically made in South Africa or Belgium), so they don’t taste the same. You can tell—if the directions or labels are written in French, German, Hindi or Afrikaans, then you know it wasn’t made in the US. We got excited because we found Kelloggs Froot Loops. Well, when we opened them, they didn’t even look like Froot Loops (the loops were 3 funky colors), and they tasted horrible. I gave them all to my driver ( I had bought 3 boxes). I’ve learned to look and see where the product was actually made, and see if the directions on the box are ones I can actually read and follow.
Well, that’s about it for now. We come home now in 4.5 weeks! Hope to see you all soon!
Au revoir,
Laurie
P.S. I'm going to post some random pictures. They don't really have much to do with shopping, but thought you might still like them. The first 4 pictures were taken discretely (from a moving car), as these are the kind of pics that will get us thrown in jail (or at a minimum, having to pay a fine), if people knew we were taking them!
2 comments:
It is just surreal when I read about your life there. When you finally come home you will wonder if it was all a dream. Sometimes I felt like I was living in another time or in the twilight zone when I was in Tokyo, and that was NOTHING like what you are experiencing. So cool! Thanks for sharing.
Interesting Laurie. Glad you shared.
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